Cecil the lion's son shot dead by trophy hunter, officials say
The son of Cecil the lion — the beloved big cat whose death at the hands of an American trophy hunter triggered widespread outrage two summers ago — has been killed as well, according to officials at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.
Lion guardians at the park said in a Facebook post that Cecil's son, Xanda, was shot and killed several days ago by another trophy hunter in western Zimbabwe.
”Xanda is still a young father at 6.2 years old and has several young cubs," officials said in the post. ”We can't believe that now, 2 years since Cecil was killed, that his oldest Cub #Xanda has met the same fate."
”When will the Lions of Hwange National Park be left to live out their years as wild born free lions should?"
Lion guardians said Xanda was killed during a hunt organized by Richard Cooke Safaris. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cooke himself was not the shooter, officials said; a client was.
According to the Telegraph, the recent death of Cecil's son ”was discovered because Xanda was wearing an electronic collar, fitted by researchers monitoring his movements in the area."
When the Zimbabwean professional hunter on the shoot, Richard Cooke from RC Safaris, discovered the dead lion had a collar, he handed it back to the researchers.
Andrew Loveridge from the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, which has a team supplying and fixing collars which monitor the lions in the Hwange National Park, said: ”I fitted it last October. It was monitored almost daily and we were aware that Xanda and his pride was spending a lot of time out of the park in the last six months, but there is not much we can do about that.
”Richard Cooke is one of the ‘good' guys. He is ethical and he returned the collar and communicated what had happened. His hunt was legal and Xanda was over 6 years old so it is all within the stipulated regulations."